#haskell laboratory

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Today’s #FashionFriday doubles as a #ScienceFriday, as this ca. 1950s photograph documents the DuPont Company’s human trials of experimental nylon fibers.

Nylon, a generic designation for a range of synthetic polymer fabrics, was commercially introduced by the DuPont Company on October 27, 1938. This announcement followed years of research into polymer fabrics that first began in 1927, when the company made the decision to split its chemical department into a collection of small research teams, each tasked with conducting research into practical applications for scientific discoveries and specific market goals.

Even after the introduction of nylon, DuPont continued to experiment with various polymer blends intended to make the fabric more comfortable and more durable. One particular issue raised by the new product was the question of dermatitis. New variants of nylon that emerged from DuPont’s labs during these decades were first tested on animals. If the product passed that test, it was then moved on to testing on paid human volunteers.

In this photo, small patches of nylon are being taped to women’s legs and arms at the Haskell Laboratory for Toxicology and Industrial Medicine near Newark, Delaware. The patches were left on for one week, then removed for ten days and again applied.

This photograph is part of the Hagley Library’s collection of DuPont Company Product Information photographs (Accession 1972.341). You can view more material from this collection online now by clicking here to view its page in our Digital Archive.

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DuPont employee fatigue test (circa 1950s) Click here to view the image in our Digital Archives.

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Testing nylon on humans, circa 1940s At DuPont's Haskell Laboratory, small pieces of nylon were taped to legs or arms of hundreds of paid volunteers like those above. Patches were left on for one week, then removed for ten days and again applied. Final test of nylons purity came with wear tests of history by 5,000 women. Click to see more images from our DuPont Product Information collection.